MB 1120 Coming to America! Purchase, Build and Now Travel!

[VerMonsterRV]

Quick trip update and wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

We're still in Baja traveling with friends and having a great time. Also starting to plan this coming summer as all of us are heading to Alaska (well if the border with Canada stays open). We're seeing a lot more expedition trucks here this year, nice to see the various builds (both professional and DIY) to get ideas from and to meet people from around the world. The big one on the left is a 20' Bliss habitat on a Mercedes 2535 AF. The tan one to the right is a Kodiak with a custom air bag suspension. Plus there has been a MAN Action Mobile, a LMTV, a Styer (sp?) and a few Iveco 4x4 vans.




Fun shark dive in Cabo Pulmo, these are bull sharks and were about a dozen.


Christmas morning we saw a large pod of humpback whales near shore, so took out the kayak to see them a bit better. Very cool.


Drone shot before the kayak paddle.


This was an enormous school of Jacks. We did this dive right before the shark dive.


And cooling off in a mountain stream. It was about a 3 mile hike up the river to get here. Very nice place to stop for lunch.


Well gotta go, there must be a margarita around here someplace ?.

 

[Madoxen]

Photoes look amazing. And such a good experience getting to paddle out with the humpbacks. Hope you have a fantastic year too come .

 

[Geo.Lander]

Happy NY Jon! Certainly living the dream!

 

[RoamIt]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

 

[philcia]

Looks incredible! It’s a little colder on my trip. I picked up my 917 from the port in Halifax a few days ago and am driving across Canada to the west coast

 

[philcia]

 

[mog]

Looks incredible! It’s a little colder on my trip. I picked up my 917 from the port in Halifax a few days ago and am driving across Canada to the west coast

Make sure to check out Lowly the Lorry's adventure from Halifax to BC at about the same time of year (snow), if you have not already HERE

 

[philcia]

Make sure to check out Lowly the Lorry's adventure from Halifax to BC at about the same time of year (snow), if you have not already HERE

Thanks Mog. I read that thread. -19 in Ottawa this morning and she started like a champ. I’m so impressed with the truck. Very happy with my choice ?

 

[Sitec]

I had to look on the phone weather to see what the day temp is going to be... Not much better at -11! 70% chance of snow on Wednesday! Good job you have a 4x4!!

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Look who rolled into La Paz and came by for a visit, @mog you might recognize the truck



Werner and Uli, I started corresponding with them by email a few years ago when we first started with our truck, ever so slowly we are getting to meet up with people we have corresponded with about our truck. Still have a few people to go but we're working on it! They have a very nice 1124 with a Fuess built habitat which then they completed the interior themselves. Also have a cool CTIS system installed. Had a nice evening with them and was great to see what they have done with the truck.

Our whale shark tour was really awesome. The visibility wasn't great but the other people on the tour were pretty poor swimmers, which meant that we could spend a lot of time with the sharks. We've been wanting to do this for years and am glad we finally got to do it, but of course now we want to do it again! Couldn't get a full body shot because of the visibility and the fact they are pretty large.




A little update on the U Bolt top plate, one place I found online that said they had it has now told me they don't. I'll keep looking. I asked Stefan about it and he thinks it is ok for now to drive the truck, just check the u bolts nuts. Hopefully I can track down a replacement.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Well I have finally settled on a way to control the 5 modes I would like our furnace to operate with. I have been looking around off/on for a control that I thought would look ok in our habitat. I had tried to force myself to like the looks of a 5 position rotary switch but it just felt a bit industrial for me. Then I found this




A fully programmable touch panel that could control relays and take input from a number of different sensors. I now have a customized one on order from Germany with a 2.8" touch screen, a I2C 4 channel relay and soon a couple of temp sensors. One temp sensor will be for the habitat air and the second will be attached to the water/water heat exchanger that couples our habitat and engine heating loops. The 5 modes will be

1. Habitat heat, both air and water from the furnace
2. Habitat water from furnace
3. Habitat heat/water from engine coolant
4. Habitat water from engine coolant
5. Preheat the engine

The plumbing is all currently in place along with the electrical pumps/fans. This new control panel will replace our air thermostat that controls our habitat heating. Once I get all the programming completed (yup, I need to write some custom code for this, but since I used to do this for a living it shouldn't be too much of a challenge) I will wire it up. Then probably order a complete second unit as a spare, the total cost including the panel ,relay module and temp sensors will be just over $100.

 

[Iain_U1250]

Wow, that is good $100 including the touch panel - that is excellent. Where did you get it from, not sure what I would use it form but seems like a nice thing to have

 

[VerMonsterRV]

Wow, that is good $100 including the touch panel - that is excellent. Where did you get it from, not sure what I would use it form but seems like a nice thing to have

I am getting (future tense as it is on order and been shipped but I haven't gotten it yet) the controller from here

Touchscreen enclosure set for ESP8266 & ESP32 - Zihatec GmbH (hwhardsoft.de)

He generously offered to do a little custom soldering to get all the inputs I need. He also suggested, after I told him what I wanted to do, which version of his touchscreen to get. I am very comfortable with the software side of things as I used to do it for a living, but not so much with hardware. Plus there are heaps of software examples on the web for this kind of thing. His guidance was very helpful with the hardware selection.

The relay was just off eBay, as will likely be the temperature sensors (haven't ordered these yet). Once I get this little proof of concept working I will most likely order a complete spare.

Just got back into internet range. Spent a few days in a more remote section of Baja, lot of the time in low range . This section of road is part of the Baja 1000. I did a rougher section on the dirt bike a few days earlier.


Found this guy, upside down on a section of wide flat beach with the tide going down. Just couldn't leave him there so we gave him a little help on his way.

 

[VerMonsterRV]

This is another post on learning about this truck. From the day we picked the truck up at the container port the locks were not working well. They would stick and the only way to get them to sorta work was to slam the door (and even then they wouldn't lock sometimes). I figured they needed parts or adjustment but I had no idea. Werner with the 1124 said he had the same issue. He thought he could have just cleaned the originals but the replacements were cheap enough (in Germany), so he just replaced them. Well sitting in the middle of Baja, replacements are not super easy to come by. So I removed the door panels and took out the door lock mechanism. Sure enough the factory grease was pretty solid. A trip to the local hardware store to get a couple cans of carb cleaner and bit of elbow grease they were clean. Then a light coat of grease and the locks now work like new, no slamming needed! Just thought I would pass this on in case anyone else is having this issue and hadn't thought that just a bit of cleaning would resolve the issue. Gotta love cheap and easy fixes.

Bit of an update on the new roof windows. Johan at WideBird has told me they are now finished and should ship this week! Bit of a shock as he had warned me that delivery by mid April would be a challenge. Can't wait to see them and get them installed. A few more weeks in Baja and we will start the trek north towards the Canadian border for the summer in Alaska.

Of course my TODO list is growing before this trip north. The roof windows are #1, then greasing the front wheel bearings, working on the new controller for the heating system and new entry ladder. Going to be a bit crazy for a couple of weeks once these projects start.

Another campsite on the beach, liked the mountain range and the lighting behind us.

 

[RoamIt]

Glad it was an easy fix! Thanks for sharing.